Every atom in your body was forged in the center of a star*

Already an established photo-based artist, I began my ceramic arts practice in 2021 in response to the digital fatigue I was experiencing during the pandemic lockdown. 

To date, my ceramic sculptures are inspired by flora and fauna and an earlier site specific photography series Hado, where I captured sculptural forms created by floating fabric in the air. The ceramic works tactilely concretize these shapes and also embody my interest in the natural world.

The pictures and sculptural work I make convey my transcendent relationship to nature—to be in it and of it, not divorced from it. Science has proven that a range of specific neural structures and systems have been linked to aspects of spirituality in religious and general contexts.

For me, nature represents innocence and mystical sublimity as conveyed in the paradise myth, where there was no awareness of death, just eternal, regenerative life. Themes of transformation and the interconnectedness of life are central to all my work, especially my ceramic practice. 

When I build a ceramic sculpture, it is a meditative and transformative experience akin to drawing. I don’t work from sketches, instead, I intuitively build each piece to create an interplay of forms and shapes. 

I like to think of my sculptures and the pictures I make as evanescent; they encapsulate both movement and stillness, their meanings metamorphose with time, context, and light, and reflect the fleeting nature of life. Clay is made of stardust, the remnants of ancient supernovas—and so are we.

My work is infused with personal childhood motifs—sea shells and deer antlers— and experiences from my adult life as a Southern Californian —specifically the desert environment. I find it ironic that I create ceramic work while living atop a fault line. It is a constant reminder of the fragility and impermanence inherent in the human condition and in nature itself. 

 *Steven Desch, Astrophysicist, ASU, Tempe. “We are Stardust,”  Science News Explores. February 28, 2014.